Total Peril
by adoptpetz
Summary: The Doctor was on his way to witness a rare light show in the Delta Quadrant, but his plans change when he is instead beamed aboard the U.S.S. Voyager. Now an artificially created dalek bacteria he brought aboard is eating away at Voyager's Engines and infecting the crew. Left only with a borg, a hologram, and young Naomi, an antidote must be invented for an incurable disease.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This has no particular place among the episodes, just after Seven of Nine joined and before Neelix leaves, and after Martha left the 10th Doctor. Sometime around season 4.

**Disclaimer:** You know the drill

**Chapter 1**

**The Doctor**

The Doctor quickly flipped levers and twirled dials. He had set the Tardis to head for year 3085 to land somewhere around the month of April on a foreign planet called Kearil in the Delta Quadrant to witness the spectacular light show phenomenon that occurred only once every twenty years.

The Tardis whirred and squealed as it took off, heading for the coordinates indicated. The Doctor leaned against his pride and joy thoughtfully, thinking of his recent companion Martha Jones. He couldn't blame her for leaving him, as he had nearly destroyed her family.

When the Master had come along and tricked everyone into electing him as Prime Minister, he had used the high authority to take over the world. He converted the Tardis into a paradox machine, strong enough to hold the paradox he created by bringing in futuristic human spheres to kill off a third of Earth's population. He had captured Martha's family for information, and later turned them into servants.

The Doctor had corrected the situation with Martha's outside help, the only escapee. He set everything right, but he and everyone else at the 'eye of the storm' remembered what had happened. Martha decided that she needed to stay behind with her family rather than travel with the Doctor again.

He missed her dearly, but understood. In his long life of 903 years, he had traveled with thirty seven companions, including a few tagalongs of the women he usually chose to take along. All of them had left him. When would he learn that in the end, they always broke his heart?

The Tardis gave a sudden jerk, and sparks erupted from multiple buttons.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, finding his balance and fiddling with some dials. What was wrong? He checked the screens a few times, nothing adding up. Finally, hitting the right combination of buttons, he found the problem. The Tardis had been teleported!

His time ship was protesting to the teleport, so the Doctor parked it. The doors rattled from the outside. How had anyone even latched onto his ship while they were in the time vortex? _Well, let's go see_, he thought leisurely yet cheerily as he cracked the door and stuck his head out.

"Captain, there's something coming for us, and it's fast."

"A missile?"

"I don't think so. It's in some sort of time flux."

"Can we modify our sensors to lock onto it?"

"I believe so."

"Get on it, Ensign."

"Yes Ma'am," Ensign Harry Kim replied. He determined the exact frequency of the object, and set the sensors for it. "I've got it."

"Onscreen," Captain Katherine Janeway ordered, standing up from the captain's chair to stretch her legs as the image appeared on the view screen. An odd blue box was hurtling for them in the distance. "What is it?"

"I'm searching for corresponding references now." The Ensign scrolled through the files until he found one that matched. "Captain, it's an antique police box! They were used in the early 1900's to hold criminals until the police arrived."

"So what's it doing in space?"

"More importantly, why is it headed right for us?"

"Ensign, is it a weapon?" Harry Kim scanned the police box in more detail.

"There's nothing to indicate it on the scanners."

"Lock onto it and beam it into cargo bay one. I'd like to examine this thing in further detail. Have B'Elanna Torres and some security meet me there, just to be safe." The Captain turned and walked out of the room into the turbo lift.

Meanwhile, B'Elanna Torres, who was much closer to the cargo bay, entered to investigate why she had been called. A strange, wooden blue box rested near the back of the room, fluctuating slightly. It finally solidified, and B'Elanna took a few cautious steps forward, taking out her scanner.

The box was giving her readings off the scale. She wondered whether she ought to wait for security and the Captain before investigating. However, curiosity got the best of her, and she tried the doors.

No matter how hard she pried, they didn't budge. The lock looked like a standard keyhole from it's time, but it was actually far more advanced. Otherwise, it would have snapped at the first tug, judging by how old it was.

Suddenly, the doors opened from the inside, and a strange man poked his head out.

"Ah, hello there," he said cheerily with a British accent.

"Intruder alert in cargo bay one," B'Elanna instinctively reported, hearing the satisfying crackle of her badge.

"Oh, no, no, no, no. No need for that," he insisted, coming all the way out. The doors slid open, and two men in uniforms came through. They pointed phasers at the intruder. B'Elanna quickly moved out of the way so she wasn't hit, using their entrance as a distraction. A woman followed them through, silhouetted at first because of the contrast in lighting.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her hands on her hips.

"I'm the Doctor, and could you please put your guns down? I hate weapons."

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Well, Doctor, how did you get on this ship?"

"Didn't you bring me here?"

"The box, Captain. He came out of the box," B'Elanna put in. A look of realization hit the Captain like a wave.

"Put down your phasers," she ordered with a slight wave of your hand. "The Doctor, you say?"

"Yes, that's me, hello," the Doctor replied with a grin, waving before stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"I'm Captain Katherine Janeway of the U.S.S. Voyager."

"Well, Captain, may I ask you something? What's the date?"

"Its stardate 51419.31," she replied with a slightly perplexed look.

"Let's see, that converts to the year 2374 around the beginning of June. We landed a bit short."

"We?"

"The Tardis and I. I've been traveling on my own for a while now. I tend to talk to her."

"If you don't mind my asking, what is that thing?" the Captain asked, taking a few steps closer.

"That's the Tardis, my time machine," he replied simply, jutting a thumb behind him towards the police box.

"It looks a bit small," she put in dryly, slightly amused.

"Well, it's bigger on the inside," he explained. Janeway gave him the strangest glance, so he explained further. "It's time lord technology."

"Are you a time lord, then?"

"At your service, Madam."

"Would you mind if I take a peek? It's a bit hard to believe, a bigger interior."

"Go ahead. Be my guest," the Doctor said, opening the door wider. Janeway peered inside, and her eyeballs nearly popped out of her head.

"Oh my word," she gasped, craning her neck to look at the top levels. The Doctor walked back in behind her, smiling as she turned between him and the large, powerful engine in awe. "This shouldn't even be possible."

"Like it?"

"It's extraordinary! Where did you get it?"

"Well, I borrowed her a while back." Janeway cast him a sharp look.

"You didn't steal it?"

"No, I wouldn't say that, no." The Captain was no longer amused.

"If you are a criminal, I can't let you go."

"But who will you turn me into? All of the time lords are dead. I'm the last one." The Captain's eyes widened with surprise and sympathy.

"I didn't realize."

"Yeah," the Doctor sighed, his head bowed in remembrance of those he lost.

"I've seen your ship," Janeway said, breaking the silence. "Would you like to see Voyager?" The Doctor did a quick calculation in his head, getting the times strait.

"This is 2374, so that means… you said U.S.S. Voyager?"

"That's right. She's Starfleet issue."

"This is the lost ship U.S.S. Voyager?!" he exclaimed again with realization.

"You know about us?"

"Yeah, time travel, you pick up a lot. But this is a historical journey that you and your crew are making! Yes, I would very much like to see this ship!" Janeway couldn't help but grin at the Doctor's enthusiasm. If he knew about Voyager's journey, then she must get her crew home safely. This relieved her greatly, and she led the Doctor back out into the cargo bay for the promised tour.

The Doctor couldn't believe his luck! No wonder he had been pulled out of the time vortex. The crew of the U.S.S. Voyager was always exploring and finding some way to investigate anything unusual or alien. They must have crossed paths. If anyone could manage to pull him and his Tardis out of the time vortex, it was this crew. Their ship had very advanced technology for the time period. He casually followed the Captain, taking long, confident strides. He was looking forward to this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Blowout**

"Where are we headed?" the Doctor asked casually.

"It's standard procedure for all new visitors to be checked over in sick bay," Janeway explained. The Doctor nodded as the doors slid aside. "Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Hologram." A holographic image materialized in front of them, but facing the wrong way.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," it recited automatically.

"Amazing," the Doctor stated, slipping his glasses on and looking over the hologram with a scrutinizing gaze. The holographic doctor turned, looking over the newcomer with an equally critical glance.

"Doctor, meet the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

"He's visiting aboard the ship. I need you to check him over."

"Of course, Captain."

"I'm afraid I can't give you the tour myself; I'm due at a meeting in just a few minutes. I'll have our Ambassador Neelix meet you here and show you around."

"I'm looking forward to this," the Doctor muttered as she exited, grinning at the other Doctor. He rolled his holographic eyes irritably.

"Where do you come from?" the hologram asked.

"A planet called Gallifrey, a long way from here, and several years in the future," the Doctor replied. The hologram ran a scanner down the Doctor and held a medical tricorder in his other hand. The holographic doctor must have noticed the alien's two hearts, but said nothing, used to new alien physiologies.

The Doctor checked the readings from the tricorder. "It looks like you're fine, apart from a foreign bacterium. I can come up with a treatment for it that's safe for your body chemistry."

"Really?" The Doctor looked over at the Doctor's tricorder readings, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar equipment. The Doctor sighed in annoyance at his patient's persistence.

"Yes, now if you would excuse me," the Doctor rudely interrupted, gently shoving the time lord out of his bubble.

That was all well, because the Talaxian Ambassador Neelix walked in through the doors.

"Doctor," he greeted.

"Yes?" both Doctors said in unison. They looked at each other irritably, each silently accusing the other of taking their name. Neelix grinned before adding, "The new Doctor."

The time lord stepped forward to shake the Talaxian's hand.

"It's good to meet you," Neelix began. "If I understood correctly, Captain Janeway said that you arrived in a small blue police box?"

"It's a ship disguised as a police box. A bit tacky, if you ask me," the hologram put in before the other Doctor could say anything.

"The chameleon circuit burned out in 1940," the Doctor defended in a voice a little too high. Neelix, knowing the ship's Doctor, quickly ushered the new Doctor out before he could start a fight.

"And this is astrometrics," Neelix rambled on. A woman at the console turned to face her guests.

"I am quite busy," she told Neelix.

"Seven, we have a guest," Neelix reminded her in a muffled voice. The woman turned to look over the visitor, standing rigidly strait.

"You must be the Doctor," she began. "I am-"

"Seven of Nine, yes, I know," the Doctor finished, closely examining her cortical implant. "Nice to meet you." Seven took a step back from the Doctor's invading stance, and cocked an eyebrow as well as her head.

The Doctor seemed to loose interest in the former borg drone and turned his attention to the big screen. Neelix shrugged to his shipmate and took a few steps after the Doctor.

"This is really remarkable," he commented, flipping through a few of the screens, easily catching on to how to operate the system. This ship had several star charts of previously unexplored Delta Quadrant space.

He knew that the Voyager crew would arrive back home with most of the crew still intact, alive and well, and with seemingly endless amounts of new data. This crew had played an extremely important part in the future of far range communications when they searched for new ways to stay in contact with Neelix. When Voyager met a colony of Talaxians, the Ambassador chose to stay with them.

Suddenly, an alarming message was broadcasted throughout the ship.

"This is the Doctor to the crew. I am calling a ship-wide quarantine. A new bacterium introduced to the ship has gone airborne and seems to be interfering with the ship's systems." Then, over the com badges he continued, "This is the Doctor. Captain Janeway and the visiting Doctor to sickbay."

"This can't be good," the Doctor muttered as he side stepped Neelix and Seven and ducked out the door, retracing his steps through the decks.

The Doctor almost walked strait into the Captain as they both rounded the same curve. They both jumped back in shock, and Janeway placed a hand on her chest as if that would calm her.

"What kind of bacteria could start destroying a ship's systems?" Janeway asked, catching up and keeping a brisk pace beside the Doctor as he instantly recovered and kept going.

"You'd be surprised. I've traveled to every planet you can think of and more, and dealt with the most bizarre occurrences. I don't doubt I've picked one up and dropped it off here."

"Our Doctor is a precision medical expert. He would have known to contain it."

"Not if the bacteria attacked his program first." Captain Janeway cast the Doctor a worried look, and he returned her gaze solemnly.

The two walked through the sliding doors to the medical bay. The Doctor's holographic image was flickering dangerously. The Doctor wasted no time.

"Where's his main database?" he asked.

"There, behind his desk," the Captain directed.

"Captain," the Doctor protested, his voice choppy from the failing program. He was quite wary of people tampering with his program, especially nearly complete strangers. It didn't take much to delete it. The Captain merely shrugged helplessly. For once, she didn't know what to do.

The Doctor took the shortcut, jumping over the table.

"Be careful," the other Doctor warned, taking a few steps in that direction. He didn't get far, though. His program was terminated, and he faded.

"Can you restore him?" Janeway asked, hurrying to his side.

"Yes, I think so," the Doctor replied, taking out a strange device and pointing it at the console. A strange whirring noise filled the room, and the Doctor rematerialized where he was standing before. He looked around in confusion before spotting the Doctor and realizing that he must have restored the program.

"What is that thing?" Janeway asked in awe.

"A sonic screwdriver. It's a few centuries ahead of your time," he replied putting it back in his coat pocket.

"How did you do that?" the Doctor asked with a new respect. The Doctor shrugged, stammering a reply.

"Well, it's, uh, um…" The Doctor waved the matter aside.

"What did you call us down for, Doctor? What's this about new bacteria?"

"Ah," the Doctor sighed, remembering why they were there in the first place. "I was examining a sample of the Doctor's bacteria when it began mutating. By the time I had erected a containment field, it had already gone airborne."

"Let me see the sample," the Doctor requested. The other Doctor obeyed and retrieved the sample from a slide and placed it under a microscope. The Doctor took over and looked at it, adjusting the lens as needed.

"This ship runs on warp plasma, doesn't it?" he asked when he looked up. His expression was blank. He rocked back on his heels, awaiting the Captain's answer.

"That's right."

"You have got to contain these bacteria, NOW." His face was dead serious.

"What is it, Doctor?"

"This bacterium was artificially formed by a species called the daleks. They designed it specifically to destroy the Tardis. It didn't have time to react to her engine, apparently, but it still clung to me. Our engines are fairly compatible. The bacteria reacted to something here, causing it to mutate. If it infects your warp plasma, your engines will blow."

As if on cue, the ship shook with tremendous force. Chief engineer B'Elanna Torres came in over the com badges.

"Torres to the Captain! We have a situation. The engines just blew, but I don't know why." Janeway and both Doctors exchanged grave glances.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Hatet**

"How bad does it look?"

"As far as I can tell, they're in pretty bad shape. I can't tell the full extent of the damage, but it will take weeks to repair. I think it's the warp plasma, because it blew from the inside."

"Mind if I have a look, B'Elanna?"

"Be my guest." The Doctor stepped up to the console, appearing to take in every detail of the scene. The warp core was blackened on the exterior, and the plasma inside was gray.

The Doctor took out his screwdriver and scanned first the warp core, then the plasma inside. He checked the readings both times, then put it away and leaned against the railing in thought.

"Well?"

"It looks like the bacterium has infected your plasma."

"Can it be repaired?"

"Oh yes, quite easily, really. See, the bacteria have laced themselves into the plasma. If we destroy the bacteria but leave the plasma,"

"It will purify itself," B'Elanna finished.

"Exactly."

"The question is how?"

"That's the easy part. There is a mineral called hatet that will attack the bacteria, but it won't touch the plasma."

"Where can we find it?"

"Where exactly are we now?"

"Come to the astrometrics lab." The Captain led the way back to the borg's post.

Once in the lab, the Captain displayed maps of where they were, and some of the surrounding area both behind and ahead of them.

"There, in grid 347," the Doctor pointed. Seven of Nine zoomed in on the spot.

"Hatet mines used to be all over that area. There's probably some left over."

"I'll tell Lieutenant Paris to plot a course." The Captain took a few steps, and then turned back. "Will you accompany me to the bridge, Doctor?"

"Oh, yes I will," he said eagerly, grinning ear to ear. He took three long strides to reach the Captain's side, and followed her out.

"Lieutenant Paris, plot a course for special grid 347," the Captain ordered as they entered.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the quake earlier, would it?" he asked, turning to obey orders.

"Yes. We're looking for a mineral called hatet."

"Hatet?"

"That's right."

"What exactly am I looking for," he inquired after a moment, picking up no traces of any sort of mineral.

"It's a very rocky substance," the Doctor answered. "Search for any massive rock deposits. It's hard to define from meteor material from scans." The Lieutenant heaved a sigh and raised his eyebrows in doubt, but did as he was told.

"There. I've picked up huge chunks of rocky material floating all over the area," he reported.

"The quickest route with thrusters will still take about three days." The Captain nodded, signaling that he should set off right away. Tom Paris engaged the thrusters, which was much slower than warp speed, but would still get them there.

"In the meantime, let's try to get this bacteria situation under control before any other critical systems go offline." The Captain headed for the turbo lift. The Doctor, on the other hand, stayed behind to see what he could do about a containment field.

The borg, Seven of Nine, was in engineering to see what she could do to increase the efficiency of the thrusters and minimize travel time. She and B'Elanna were doing their best not to butt heads in such dire circumstances.

_Perhaps if she diverted enough energy to keep the engines stable while… no, that wouldn't work; it might drain Voyager's oxygen_. While she puzzled over this, B'Elanna was busy barking orders to her fellow engineers, obviously stressed over the situation.

Still at the same time, the Doctor had finally modified the ship's sensors to track the bacteria's progress and had come up with a formula for a reinforced force field to contain it.

Most of the replicator circuits had burned out, the engines had blown, and some of the lights had been shorted. The mutated bacterium had spread from deck 5 to the cargo bays to one level below engineering. Some began to question the safety of even that room. None of the crew in the infected areas was permitted outside of those decks until a safe virus could be formulated to fight the bacteria. In the mean time, the staff already down there began repairing what they could.

Lieutenant Paris was busy at the helm plotting a safe automated course while steering the ship manually. He wanted a smooth trip for the night shift, on without interruption. Of course, once they neared the site, they would have to switch back to manual. There was no way to account for all of the floating debris.

The Doctor's eyes burned from looking over the data on these screens all day long. He rubbed them beneath his glasses and scrunched his eyes in concentration. He had saved the world countless times, usually on a tight time budget. Now that he had plenty of time, though, he couldn't seem to keep all of the data strait.

He heard the astrometrics doors slide apart behind him, and turned briefly to see who it was. It was Captain Janeway. Upon identifying her, he turned back around to run over the data for what seemed like the hundredth time. Janeway walked up beside the Doctor and leaned against the console he was working at. Neither said anything for a moment; they just stood side by side in companionable silence.

"We can't do much more until we get this hatet material you mentioned. Why don't you get some rest? I can arrange for sleeping quarters to be prepared."

"No, that's alright. I prefer to sleep in the Tardis."

"But the cargo bay has been infected."

"Your Doctor has nearly finished the vaccine for the crew. I can help him finish it and give myself a dose after purging the Tardis of the bacteria."

"You can do that?"

"Oh yes. Quite easily, really, now that we've identified it.

"That still doesn't answer how you're going to get down there through the containment fields you came up with. They're more secure than a level ten force field."

"That's even easier. I'm quite good at teleport." The Doctor had taken out a round, flat teleportation device he had picked up in the thirty first century. After setting the coordinates, he held it up for demonstration and with a grin and a half wink, pressed the button and teleported.

The Captain threw up her hands in amused defeat when the Doctor vanished. The Doctor was an odd creature to say the least, but very kind and incredibly intelligent. He could have left the Voyager crew to sort this mess out themselves. Rather, he had the decency to stay and help them to fix it. Katherine Janeway appreciated the kindness he displayed that was so scarce in this region of space.

The Doctor appeared in Voyager's sick bay, much to the hologram's surprise.

"How did you get here?" The Doctor held up his teleport device.

"Teleport." The Doctor grinned and slipped it back into his coat pocket while the other rolled his eyes.

"So, what have you got so far?" The Doctor rubbed his hands together eagerly.

"I believe I've constructed the basic formula, but there's still a variable missing." The Doctor beckoned the Doctor over to his work desk where his work lay. The Doctor peered over his shoulder at the math, and then swiped it into his own hands. The Doctor huffed in annoyance.

"If I'm right, and I usually am, then I think that you can use biotic time vortex material to substitute for about half of your equation, including the missing variable there. Seasoned time vortex material forms immunity to several types of bacteria."

"It's a shame we don't have any," the Doctor replied dryly, snatching it back.

"Sure we do. I am a time lord. I've been traveling in my Tardis for a few hundred years now. I practically live in the time vortex… well… actually I do, since the Tardis has the time vortex welled up inside her… anyway, that's not the point. If you take a strand of DNA from my bloodstream and filter out all of the unnecessary components, you'll have done it. It's touchy, complicated work, but a skilled, precision hologram such as you could do it."

"Well, I am programmed for precision," the Doctor boasted, scanning the Doctor with a medical tricorder. "You're right," he finally said. "Brilliant idea, Doctor."

"I know."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: You're probably trying to place the Niril, right? Don't. I made them up.**

**Chapter 4**

**The Niril**

"Ow," the Doctor whined as the Doctor stuck him with a needle for a blood sample.

"There, there, it's over," replied the other Doctor dryly. The Captain and Tuvok walked into Voyager's sick bay as the doors parted with a hiss.

"Well?"

"The Doctor has graciously donated the last ingredient for our antidote," the EMH reported.

"What was it?"

"Biotic time vortex material. The Doctor can filter out what components we need from a DNA strand in my bloodstream and incorporate it into the antidote."

"Where did you pick up time vortex material," Janeway laughed, "or is that just another perk to being a time lord?"

"No, the Tardis has the whole time vortex welled up inside her, and I live in the Tardis. I've absorbed it over the past few hundred years." Janeway let out a quiet, impressed chuckle. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go down and purge the Tardis."

"Of course," Janeway smiled with a waving gesture of her hand.

"May I remind you of your own force fields," Tuvok put in. "You designed them so that not even a particle of the bacterium could get through, let alone a body."

"As I said before, I'm quite good at teleport." The Doctor reached for his thirty first century teleportation device, and pressed the button after setting the coordinates.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow, and the Doctor rolled his eyes with a sigh of disapproval. He did not care for the recklessness of their guest. Janeway, however, was extremely amused. She couldn't help but grin.

"What do you make of him, Doctor?" Tuvok questioned.

"He is extremely erratic and possibly unstable, but he's quite brilliant. He has a very interesting physiology as well. I believe he's safe enough, for now," the hologram added, knowing what the Vulcan was after. Tuvok nodded in reply, trusting the Doctor's judgment.

"When will the antidote be ready?" Janeway inquired.

"I should have it done in a matter of hours."

"Good. Start working on a way to cleanse the stranded crew without releasing the bacterium," Janeway ordered, taking her leave.

The Doctor woke to a sudden jolt. He was violently thrown out of bed.

"Whoa! Oh," he groaned as he picked himself up. He rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the floor's grating. "That's going to leave a mark." The Doctor slipped on his coat without bothering to change, and dashed out to the engine room. He checked the monitors, trying to figure out what had happened. His Tardis hadn't budged; it was Voyager that had been affected.

Then, a shrill whining emanated from the console.

"Bah!" the Doctor cried, protecting his sensitive ears. With one hand, he spun a few dials and pushed a few buttons until the whining subsided and Captain Janeway's face appeared on the monitor. "A little softer next time please, Captain."

"My apologies, Doctor," she began, though she didn't sound too apologetic, "but we're having a bit of trouble locking onto your call frequency." The Doctor noticed that the image was blurry and breaking up.

"Yes, the time vortex interferes with that. For your ship's technology, the frequency appears to be constantly changing. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do for that."

"That appears to be the least of our troubles at the moment, Doctor. Could you see me in my ready room?"

"Of course, Captain."

"It's urgent. Come as soon as possible," she nodded.

The Doctor took only enough time to change his clothes, and teleported strait to sickbay to be dosed with the antidote. As soon as this was done, he took the shortcut by teleport directly to the Captain's office.

The Captain wasn't too pleased with his sudden appearance. The Doctor arrived smiling boldly, expecting one of the Captain's amused greetings. All he received, however, was a dark look and an invitation to sit. The Doctor's smile vanished, realizing that something was seriously wrong, and just about pounced on the chair.

"We came across a new species this morning. They accused us of trespassing in their space and wouldn't allow us to go any further. The hatet we need is in the heart of their territory. We offered to trade with them, but they fired on us."

"That explains the ship rocking," the Doctor realized. Janeway gave a curt nod of confirmation. "This species you ran into. What are they called?"

"They identified themselves as the Niril." The Doctor's face fell.

"Oh, no," he sighed.

"You've encountered them before?"

"Yes, once or twice a long time ago."

"I take it they are hostile?"

"No, no, not usually. Most of the time, they'll just pull a very convincing bluff. They're very territorial, though, and won't trade at all. Especially not the hatet. They spend their whole lives mining and refining the stuff. Their whole civilization is powered off of it, but there's such a need for it on their planet, it's becoming harder to find. They get very touchy when it comes to hatet."

"Is there any way we could convince them to give up just enough?"

"Probably not," he sighed. The Captain sighed. "However," the Doctor continued, "we can't cleanse the ship without it, so we may as well give it a shot."

"What do we have that might get their attention?" the Captain asked.

"Well," the Doctor said, getting up, "let's find out." He jumped through the doors and nudged the stunned Ensign Kim aside at the console. The Doctor fiddled with the controls using the sonic, and finished just as Janeway came out and noticed what he was doing. Sparks shot from it in time for her to see. She let out a disapproving huff, but didn't protest. The view screen flickered on, and the nearest Niril ship came in over the com.

The Doctor looked on in distain at the familiar face of a Niril. He wasn't one to be prejudice, but even he wasn't fond of the Nirils' looks. They had pale, moist skin that always looked slimy to the touch. A short head frill, no more than an inch high at the most rippled along their heads starting just above the eyebrows and stretching down the whole neck. They had only a bump for a nose with two flat nostrils stretched too far apart on males and much too close on females. Their ears were naturally ragged and torn looking, and they were much too long; the loose skin fluttered out behind them like flags when they walked. They had six fingers on each hand with slight webbing in between. Each finger was topped by a pointed, claw like growth that only added to their unpleasant, intimidating appearance.

"DOCTOR?!" the Niril on the other end of the screen burst. The Doctor recoiled at the forceful sound of his name. He scrunched his eyes, trying to place this Niril's face. His eyes bulged when he finally realized who he was facing.

"SYLRICK?" he exclaimed with equal surprise.

"A friend of yours?" Janeway asked hopefully. Perhaps they could get the hatet after all.

"Not exactly," the Doctor said. He turned to face Janeway with a serious look. The Captain was shocked to pinpoint fear on his face too. Genuine fear!

The Niril on the other end smiled slyly.

"You have been seeking the material of the hatet, I understand."

"That's right," the Captain spoke, instantly preparing to negotiate a trade.

"I have a quantity on my ship. It isn't often that we trade the material, but I'm sure we can come to an agreement."

"What are you up to, Sylrick?" the Doctor demanded.

"Whatever do you mean, Doctor?" the Niril questioned "innocently" with a slight growl.

"I wouldn't put it past you to take advantage of the situation."

"You mean like the last time we met? You remember. You ruined one of my sales."

"Your so called new 'product' was infected with deadly radiation!"

"How was I to know that my customers would have a reaction to the Tsian?"

"Whatever you're planning, I hope you know that I'll have to stop you."

"Tell me, Doctor. Where is your friend, Rose Tyler?" The Doctor froze at the mention of his dear friend's name. She had accompanied him on his last encounter with this sly conman Sylrick. "Now that I've got your attention," he rumbled, "perhaps I can turn back to the Captain and arrange to beam aboard your ship?"

"Of course," the desperate Captain replied.

"Don't trust him," the Doctor roared.

"Captain?"

"I'll have you beamed aboard." Sylrick tipped his head in 'thanks.' "Tuvok," she summoned.

"Captain, I must protest," the Doctor insisted, catching her halfway through the door.

"We will take every precaution," she assured. "You said it yourself, Doctor. We need the hatet to cleanse the ship. I am not willing to complete our journey back to Earth on thrusters alone." The Doctor bit his lip to stop himself from offering to tow them. He knew the Tardis was capable of such a feat, but this was a fixed point in time. He could alter all of history if he interfered now.

Since he could not prevent the Captain from trading with his old foe, he decided to pay a visit to the Doctor and then monitor Sylrick's actions from the safety of the Tardis. He decided not to bother with the teleport; a teleport could be too easily reversed if Sylrick was still holding a grudge and wanted him personally. He hurried down to sick bay and rushed through the sliding doors. The Doctor looked up only long enough to see who it was.

"Oh, it's you again," he stated flatly.

"Doctor, I need your expertise," the Doctor panted. "You're very familiar with this crew, yes?"

"Well, of course. I've travelled with them for quite some time now."

"Tell me, Doctor, does the crew have any major weak points?" The Doctor shot him a look as if to ask, _do I really look that stupid to you?_ "No, no, not like that. The crew may be in real danger here."

"I'm sorry. That is classified information. For all I know, you could be the danger to the crew."

"All right, think, think, think," the Doctor muttered to himself through frustrated, clenched teeth, running a hand through his hair. How could he word it so it didn't sound so suspicious? "Let me just put it this way. There's a criminal coming aboard this ship to negotiate for a portion of hatet. I've dealt with him before. I wouldn't doubt that he has something up his sleeve. Guard your weak spots at all times and don't trust him, whatever he says. Stay on guard."

With that, the Doctor turned and left, taking a dose of the antidote to save for his return trip. He headed through the decks until he came to the force field, where he teleported only to the other side of the wall. If his teleport was undone, he wouldn't have gone far.

For half of an hour, the Doctor looked for something that might give away Sylrick's plans. He checked the shipment of hatet three times over for any unusual substance that might poison the crew. The Niril came and prepared to leave. The Doctor was beginning to think that Sylrick really had been making an honest trade. That still didn't explain why he suddenly changed his mind in trading with the Voyager crew. Twenty minutes later, the Doctor paid him a surprise visit.

"How did you get in?" he squeaked.

"The same way as you. Simple teleportation."

"Fair enough. What do you need, Doctor?"

"You were right about that man, Sylrick."

"What's he done?"

"Come with me." The two Doctors hurried out of the cargo bay and rushed to sick bay. The Doctor explained what had happened along the way.

"Everything was going fine. They only wanted a pure sample of warp plasma in return for the hatet for research they were conducting on new energy sources. We gave them the warp plasma, and they promised to beam aboard the hatet. Just as they were getting on the transporter platform, they shot something at the Captain. It seems to be instantly contagious to the touch. It's getting worse. I've never seen anything like it. Half of the crew has been infected."

The sickbay doors parted with a hiss of protest. The Doctor took a few long bounds to the Captain's side. He was careful not to touch her, but he peered at the injury. The surrounding skin was becoming inflamed and an unnatural shade of green.

"It's Crurttan," he diagnosed, "and it's deadly."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Cure**

"Is there a cure?" the Doctor asked. The time lord shook his head.

"No known cure." The Doctor clenched his fists. Now it made sense. Sylrick had wanted revenge, so he planned on making the Doctor suffer. What better way than to infect his beloved humans with a deadly disease? This disease had no cure, and it was a slow, painful way to die. His hearts lurched in pity when he saw Janeway stir. "But that doesn't mean there isn't one."

"You just said there was no cure."

"Not yet. But we're going to make one, Doctor. We're going to make a cure for Crurttan."

"How do you plan to do that?" The Doctor racked his brain for answers. The infection was artificial, created from the chemical Crurttan found in the tissue of Niril air sacs, the substitution for lungs. The tissue was salvaged from dead corpses and then processed to make the infection. It was deadly even to the Niril. It was a rare disease because the processing of Crurttan was illegal, therefore sold as a 'black market' item.

Next, the Doctor took a brief inventory of what he had to work with. He had the sick bay, damaged replicators, cellular samples from a variety of species, and of course! He had a borg.

"Has Seven of Nine been infected yet?"

"No, she's locked herself in astrometrics." The Doctor jumped forward and clicked the hologram's Starfleet com badge before he could protest.

"The Doctor to Seven! Get down to sick bay, pronto!" he called. The Doctor rolled his eyes as Seven answered in an equally annoyed tone. The Doctor leapt over the hologram's work desk rather than going around and got to work on altering borg nano probes to fight the Crurttan.

By the time Seven had arrived, the Doctor had already designed a model on the computer and was ready to make a working model. The Doctor assisted him until he was called away to contain the ever spreading disease. From there, Seven took over.

"We still need another component," Seven pointed out.

"Yes, and it can't be time vortex material this time," the Doctor tried to joke with himself, but it wasn't working. He was breathing hard under the stress and worry the situation was putting him under. "We need hybrid cells of some sort. The Crurttan can only attack pure cells."

"Perhaps that's why Naomi hasn't been affected yet," the Doctor commented as he returned with the young girl." The other Doctor made another flying jump over the table and crouched down in front of the human-ktarian girl.

"Hi," Naomi said in an uncertain tone.

"Hello there," the Doctor answered, straitening up. "You're a hybrid?"

"My father was Ktarian and my mom is human," she answered, still unsure of the madman's intent.

"Perfect! Naomi, isn't it? May I take a cell sample from you? It won't hurt a bit." The girl looked at her trusted doctor who answered with a curt nod before she answered.

"Okay." The Doctor hurried back and took a scalpel from the Doctor's instruments.

"Hold still now," he directed as he shredded a thin layer of the girl's horn off. Naomi only blinked as the flake fluttered off and into his hand. He took it back over to the table and finished off his Crurttan antidote. The Doctor cast an apologetic look to the little girl before joining them at the table. When no one was watching, Naomi finally let a smile show. The Doctor _was_ strange.

When it was finished, the Doctor received permission from the Doctor to test it out on a living subject. He loaded the dose into a hyper spray and injected it into Catherine Janeway. She let out a quiet, unconscious groan, but gave no other acknowledgement. The Doctor inspected her infected green skin, and noted with satisfaction that the skin already seemed to be reverting back to its normal color.

"How many people have been infected?"

"All of the crew except for the few hybrid species aboard."

"Recruit as many of them as you can and treat the rest of the crew." He tossed a few more hyper spray doses to the Doctor and Seven, and then showed Naomi how to use one. He left the Doctor to complete treating everyone in sick bay and began making his own rounds.

"What happened?" groaned Janeway.

"Lie still," the Doctor directed. "You're not well enough to be up and about."

"What about-"

"Don't worry about a thing. I'll take care of everything."

"The bacterium?"

"Yes. I'll get the hatet." Janeway was finally satisfied, and let her eyes flutter shut. The time lord sighed. He wasn't one to break a promise. How was he going to do this with a skeleton crew, a damaged ship and the enemy right next door?


End file.
